Page 29 of Being Bold
Not on my watch.
“We go together. Meet us at this location.” He extended a hand, waiting for her to hand over her phone so he could share the pin he’d dropped. It was the spot where he kept his truck parked. With a huff, she complied. “We’ll be there in half an hour. If you don’t show by twenty hundred . . .” He didn’t finish the statement, but she understood what he didn’t say—they’d leave without her, and if she ended up at the apartment first, things wouldn’t go smoothly.
“Fine,” she quipped. After shooting a smirk at him, she hugged Selene. “Be safe.”
“You, too,” Selene told her with a squeeze.
For Selene’s sake, he hoped Yumi showed up at the meeting point. With a grunt, he broke them up. Then, after a nod to Yumi, he told Selene, “Let’s go.”
She trailed him to the woodpile, where he dug around until he found the edge of the blue tarp that covered his snowmobile. Grunting at its weight, he tugged, pulling a couple of feet of snow off with the plastic.
The sled underneath was clear of the precipitation. Once he’d started the engine, he climbed on and offered a hand to Selene. When her bare hand landed in his, he cursed. “You need gloves.”
“I don’t have any with me.”
And they were losing time. “Climb on,” he growled over the noise of the engine.
When she settled behind him, he felt her hands fluttering for something to hang onto. Sighing, he told her, “Wrap your arms around me.”
When she did, he backed away from the pile of logs for the fireplace, then came to a stop. “Good.” The word rasped from his lips as he tried and failed not to think about her body molded around his. He had no right to think about cupping the curves pressed into his back. No right.
Dammit!This ride would be torture.
Gritting his teeth, he said, “Put your hands in my coat pockets. I’ve got spare gloves in the outfit you can use for the way back.”
“Okay.” Her response was a squeak, making him wonder . . .
“Have you ridden one of these before?”
“Once. When I was a teenager.”
Fuck.They didn’t have time for a real lesson. “Just do what I do, okay? If I lean, lean with me. If I stand up, do the same.”
“All right.” She sounded slightly less terrified.
After a grumble, he said, “You’ll be fine. I won’t let you fall off.”
With that, he hit the gas. Old and fresh snow covered the path to his truck. The ride would be bumpy as hell, and the temperature made it feel like driving through an ice storm. She had to be miserable.
Well, that made two of them.
Liar.
Selene wrapped around him, leaning into him, and it felt too damned good. Most of the way there, he struggled to think about anything but finishing what they’d started in the bathroom. He wanted to make her come. Watch those ocean eyes fog over as she screamed his name.
Too bad that wasn’t going to happen.
They’d been riding for twenty minutes when he felt her shivering. Though she wore his sweats, she wasn’t used to this weather. Snow-covered trees whizzed by as he pushed the sled into the powerband. The engine squealed, but he yelled over it, “Almost there. Hold on, Selene.”
She’d buried her face in his neck to protect it. With the wind chill, the temperature felt below zero, but her breath kept him warm. He only hoped his body blocked enough of the gusts that she didn’t freeze before they made it to his pickup. He’d been driving hard, determined to arrive before Yumi.
When they reached the pull-off where his Super Duty stood, a flicker of surprise coursed through him. The suspicious part of him expected her to be a no-show, but Yumi waited in an SUV with snow tires.
She rolled down her window as he cut the sled’s engine. “I’ve got a scraper. Crank the truck and I’ll help you clear it off.”
Bo heard Selene’s teeth chattering behind him. She hadn’t taken her hands from his pockets, and her shivers were violent enough to shake him, too.
Cursing under his breath, he stood, turning to help her off the snowmobile. “Thanks,” he called over his shoulder to Yumi, “but leave yours running. She needs warmth.”
